Two days of each week of training are spent all together learning about human rights, health, the law, advocacy and a range of other things. Then, on Tuesday, we break up into four groups for the specific income generation learning. And recently, chilies have dominated.

In the kitchen the ladies have learnt to make achar (pickles) under the watchful eye of Anju didi, our pickle queen. Pickles are now made, bottled and labelled and this week is sales and marketing training where Anju will take the ladies to learn tha art of door to door sales. Next week they get stuck into dhoop (incense) so the smells emanating from that room will be different.

Here is Anju, our achar didi and some of the products.

In the front room, the polymer clay ladies have also been surrounded by chilies! We are making chilies to learn how to do a Skinner blend and also because we will be sending a range of Chili Jewellery to ACP to see if they want to buy some.

If the reaction from the ladies here is anything to go by, we are onto a winner. We are in the middle of making chili earrings for each participant so they will be perfect for general consumption. So to speak.

Here is Pramila bashing her Skinner blend-with love-and creating the Chili Choker!

The tailoring ladies are already making children’s clothes and made their first sale last week! And we make sure we tell the computer training ladies just how much fun we are having!

Our photo shows Rupa looking happy with herself as she learns how to make babies’ clothes which are in high demand here.

The photo of this letter was meant to accompany a thank you entry quite some time ago but a technical hitch (can you call a brain malfunction a technical hitch?) meant it didn’t get sent to our wonderful website queen in Ohio.

So, here is a photo of the very heartfelt letter from our board to thank some of the people they wanted to acknowledge more formally. (Click on the letter to see it full-sized.)

Two of the people mentioned are Australians who live here in Nepal and who feel enormously fortunate to have anything to do with Samunnat. Thanks enough in being able to be involved. Two are some of the many wonderful behind-the- scenes people who keep things running smoothly and manage our Friends of Sammunat account in Australia. Two made very generous donations in the early stages; and Cynthia is the designer, originator and ongoing maintainer of our gorgeous website.

To these and all the people who continue to support us in every way, we are deeply grateful. As always, we hope the blog can impart a small part of the sense of energy and excitement we feel when we see the transformation that is happening for women here.

Dhanyabad

Small group goal setting discussions. We did have chairs set up but they were abandoned early on.

Two participants display their lemon pickles

Punctual participants with our banner

We had been talking and thinking about the training for such a long time. Now the day had arrived. Today was the first day and I was so excited about our training but wondered whether we could reach there on time. [Editors note: a valid concern. She does try to squeeze a lot into the morning!]

Unfortunately, as usual, I was late. [Ed: Not by some local standards]

When we started, we organised the time and began the program in an informal way. Gopal welcomed the ladies and Wendy didi lit the candle and we all introduced ourselves. Then we had a meditation training. I had never felt so excited working in the office before. Even though some ladies were from far away, they all came punctually as promised. It gave me the energy to work more. [Ed's note: This is a somewhat daunting thought! Kopila works amazingly hard] I really don’t feel tired.

Our first week was very emotional and the ladies were very thoughtful. Each lady had excitement on her face. An interesting thing was when we had the “Ice Breaking” session and they laughed and enjoyed the activities. I felt that, for the first time in a long time, they had the chance to open up and see a light of hope. In the break time they all wanted to exchange their feelings with one another.

During all the planning and preparation still I felt I was juggling so many things and I wondered if it would all happen. So now, first week is finished. I feel more relaxed about the rest of the training!

Kopila

The month has been a busy one-even without the diversions of New Year. For most people here it is mid 2066 and very cold. We all looked a bit like the Michelin man at our board meeting with our many layers of clothing.

We have done lots of work as the final arrangements for the training program come together.

A few days ago, Kopila and I ran the Goal Setting component of the training for most of the board members. They politely asked to hear it all. We did in one day what will take much longer in reality. They were a wonderful trial audience and were very encouraging.

With so many women interested in the program, the job of the board becomes identifying the women from our target population who will most benefit from this round of training. We are getting a strong message that we will need to repeat this course.

We are excited by the commitment and energy of our trainers. They share our passion for training that has real measurable outcomes and working with them has been wonderfully inspiring. Debita, our cutting and tailoring trainer is pictured here.

We continue to be encouraged by the generosity of people who want to help and particularly want to thank the following contributors for their very generous recent donations:

• Rhonda and Geoff Coleman
• Bev and John McLaren
• Bert and Leslie Washington

Blog entries may be “pithier” than usual for the next month or so (which some of you may consider a blessing) as we will be somewhat distracted and busy. Bear with us and we will try and keep you up to date with photos at least.

The other wonderful thing that has happened in past weeks is that we have been able to move to a MUCH better office. Thanks to donations, we can now afford something much more suitable and the transformation is profound.

From a one room dustbowl with poor light, a cacophonous soundtrack, no privacy and highway frontage, we now have four rooms in the ground floor of a home less than ten minutes walk from the highway but light years away in terms of sound and dust.

There is one room with good natural lighting where we do the beading and claying; one room for training and meeting and where we will hold the bulk of our New Start program; one room that serves as an office and interview room for the new ladies who come to ask for help and one room which will be for storage.

For the first time, we have funds to actually BUY some furniture so have got some second hand tables and chairs that are so much more comfortable. We also plan to have some storage which will be a vast improvement on the “bags of bags” system we have primarily used to date! It is “ekdam shanti”-very peaceful.

You can see the exterior in the these photos and get a glimpse of some of us at work. The ladies in this photo came in especially on a Saturday to work on an order we had from the Association of Craft Producers (ACP). We are very happy with the new place and had the first board meeting there a week ago. We’d welcome visitors.

Well, we have been dropping enough hints and now we can spill the beans!

The Australian Embassy, representing the Australian Government in Nepal, have a grant program called the Direct Aid Program which provides small one-off grants to specific programs all over the world.

Some months ago, in very close consultation with the ladies we work with, we developed a longer version of the program we called the “New Start Program” which we hope to run at least twice next year and have mentioned in earlier blog entries.

We submitted the plans and lots of other documentation to see if it fitted the Embassy guidelines for funding. It did but we were told that the funding was very competitive and that we’d have to wait to see which programs, out of many submitted, could be funded. To our absolute delight we were told that we’d been accepted. Kopila went to Kathmandu last Thursday to sign contracts and receive the initial cheque.

We plan to start the program early next year and are now “talking turkey” with our prospective trainers and applicants! We planned to run a very pared down version of this whether we got the funding or not, thanks to donations received already. Now we can include many more components that the women identified as important and can include some more expensive training options (such as Introduction to Computers, Mobile Phone repair) with real prospects for income generation.

There is a very big emphasis on practical training in goal setting and planning and each woman will set individualised weekly goals and practise evaluating them with a mentor. This will be in readiness for setting a personal six-month goal at the end of the course that will be regularly monitored so they can determine:

• What’s working?
• What’s not?
• What needs to be done differently?

A remarkable American called Mark Ylvisaker, with his colleague Tim Feeney, used these questions in helping a very different population to establish meaningful life goals. He tragically died this year and his influence truly continues in activities like this. Vale Mark.

Ongoing evaluation and tangible, measurable outcomes were a big requirement in the proposal. Part of this will be the production of a DVD covering the journey of some of the women through the training.

We are very excited about this and as always, want to say a massive thank you to all our supporters and readers for their ongoing practical and emotional support! We will keep you posted via the blog as to how it is all going. Now the tricky task of time-tabling lies ahead.

Where will the program be held we hear you ask? Wait until next blog’s exciting instalment!

Living in the Terai region of Nepal, you never really forget that trafficking is a tragic and frightening reality for many. I travel to Birtamod by bus along the East West Highway. At various points on the three-hour trip signs like these appear beside the road.

BE CAREFUL

The signs warn that when you marry, you must be careful that it is not a trap which will be followed by being sold. This can happen even if your parents, perhaps well-meaning but desperate, are arranging your marriage.

The second sign is the same. Watch out when you look for a job-especially “outside”.

Women and their families are so vulnerable. Poverty means decision making is tinged with desperation and limited education means decision making is clouded by ignorance. A terrible situation.

Organisations like Maiti Nepal rescue women who have been trafficked and try to educate women of the dangers in areas where trafficking is rife. Organisations like Sammunat Nepal try to give these women a way to earn their living so they are not so desperate.

We have had a couple of sad blog entries but really hope that next one will be a cause for celebration. Strap yourselves down!

I live in Jhapa in Eastern Nepal. My family members are very hard working and dedicated and even though we were poor we were very happy. Our sorrows started when my brother got married. His was a love marriage and we didn’t know about it until he came home with his new bride. He is the only son and my mother had expectations of him regarding his marriage, especially as my father had already died.

Anyway, we were very happy when he came with his new wife and we welcomed her in our house. For a few months there were very happy days with my new sister-in-law and we treated her as our own sister as there were already four of us. I don’t know what the problem was for her but wondered if it was because my sister-in-law came from a rich family and she found it hard living with our family who were poor.

My sisters began to wonder if they were the cause of the problem and didn’t want our family to be destroyed so we all decided to look for work as none of us were married. None of us have a good education so we can’t get good jobs. My two older sisters left home to work and one is in Kathmandu. My third sister disappeared after she was taken to Siliguri by a lady saying she was giving her training. We have heard she has been trafficked but do not know where she is. Now my two older sisters are married.

Even though my brother and sister-in-law are living in our house we do not share the kitchen and I now have all the responsibility to look after my mother and to provide for her. My brother is not providing for us. My sister in law wants us to move out from the house which is our family home. To try and get us out of the house, she registered a case claiming my brother’s property rights. We used to hear her shouting with our brother saying that we need to get out and that she wants to live in the house herself. She tells him it is his right to have the house. She wants to say that I have no right to any of the property as I am the daughter. She verbally abuses me and says cruel things to me. My brother is helpless and so he left the house and went to Kathmandu for work and also to get away.

Slowly my mother’s mental and physical health has got worse and I have to take her to doctors for treatment. This happens repeatedly. My sister in law lives downstairs and we live upstairs. Due to the behaviour of my sister in law and the situation we are now in, I hurt very badly and sometimes wished I would die. I knew this couldn’t happen because I have responsibilities. Some times I felt that we should just leave the house and let her stay. Because of all that has happened I failed my exams and stopped my studies. I felt so ashamed and depressed because all my friends were studying but I was not. I couldn’t tell anyone how I felt.

One day, the court sent us a letter requiring us to respond to my sister-in-law’s claim. I was so shocked and frightened. I met a lawyer named Kopila and told her my whole story when she saw me in the office at Sammunat Nepal. She told me the procedure of the legal process-how to reply and what to do next.

At Sammunat Nepal there were many ladies who had been abused in some way. They were all working and I began to work too. With my own hands I have made necklaces, fringed scarves, beads from foreign clay in many new designs. The lessons were given by Wendy-didi and she has given us new light in our lives.

I have a new life and I am very happy. This is why I wish that no-one becomes victims of violence or abuse. If it happens, don’t silently tolerate it. You have your rights and have to claim them. You have to start a new life. Do not think that this is your karma or that you should put up with bad treatment. You have to help yourself. Finally, I would like to thank Kopila-didi and Wendy-didi and will put down my pen.

Dhanyabad

Postscript: Sushila’s case is still being heard. She is now fighting for what she is legally entitled to-for her own rights. As an unmarried daughter, legally she has the same rights as a son. The court is currently confirming her claim that she is not married. It will take many months but should be a positive outcome. Sushila has come up with some wonderful ideas using the clay and makes many beautiful beads.

I have been married for 9 years and have one son who is 8 years old. My husband’s family are farmers. There are 4 sons in the family and all are married. We all lived together in his parents’ small home (Ed: Maximum of 4 rooms).

Right from the beginning of our marriage, even though it was a marriage arranged by my husband’s parents, I was aware that they did not like me and thought I was too much of a backward village girl for their son. They wanted someone who was more modern and not so quiet as me. As time went on my husband began to agree with his parents that I was not good enough for him and he began to treat me very poorly. I knew that he didn’t love me.

As our financial situation deteriorated my husband and his family planned for him to go and work in the Arab countries which is very common for poor Nepali families. Many Nepali women live for years without their husbands who are working “outside”. Without consulting me, he left for an Arab country when we had been married for two years and my son was one year old. He rang occasionally but never sent money to me and I had to ask my parents-in-law whenever I needed money for my son or me.

My sisters-in-law began to treat me as the domestic slave, giving me all the household chores and criticizing the way I did them. I could never make them happy although I continued to try for the sake of my son. They would shout at me and treat me very badly but did not let me tell my husband, eventually not even allowing me to speak with him on the phone.

I would cry and cry whenever I was on my own and wonder if this was karma, or what I had earned from my past life. Nepali people have the tradition that when a daughter is married, she leaves her parents’ home, never to return. At our wedding, the bride’s parent say, “Mare pap, pale punnya” meaning “Kill her and it is a sin, treat her well and you will be blessed.” You realize that your daughter is entirely at the mercy of her husband’s family.

I wondered if I was going mad. Even though his family tried to convince my husband I was a bad wife and not good enough for him, I always hoped that one day when my husband came back, he would understand me and love me.

When he came back I was so happy, but immediately began to cry when I realized he had bought his new wife home with him as a surprise. In fact, I fainted. (Ed: Bigamy has been illegal in Nepal since 1965 but is still openly practiced.) I realized that I was alone and had no-one to help me. Neighbours and friends advised me to stay in the marriage and negotiate with the second wife. No-one was there to tell me my rights or advocate for me.

Eventually I heard about Sammunat and went to Kopila-didi and told my story. Kopila-didi went to my area police station and helped me to put in my application for the bigamy charge. The village registered the case and the police arrested my husband. Sammunat helped me to get all I was entitled to. Sammunat told me that they were with me. They told me to have courage and be confident with myself and that I could be independent. From this day I was confident that I was not alone as there were many ladies in Sammunat who had become my friends. I don’t feel alone but I still feel hurt and sad whenever I hear the word “backward”.

Nowadays I am working making clay beads and necklaces. I am very happy and feel very independent, confident and happy. I have one son, I have to live for him. Now it is my duty to send him to school and coming to Sammunat is my daily routine. At last, this is my very painful story.

From the “backward lady”, Anjana

Well, nearly 200 scarves, over 20 apron sets, countless potholders and mitts, many, many necklaces, bangles and earrings and a change of undies can be squeezed into three suitcases and weigh under our combined baggage allowance of 60 kgs.

Just.

It is humanly possible and all those Sammunat products lovingly made over the last six months or so have now safely arrived in Australia.  We have had the first three of five fundraising events and sold lots of products.  My husband is perplexed as to why there does not seem to be any discernable difference in the weight of the bags!

We have had so many thoughtful donations from the Australian clay community.  Thanks to Hector Vera, Mel Dilday, Heather Richmond, Jennifer Tattam and so many others I will remember next time!  People have been very encouraging about the blog and we have received some very generous donations.  Heartfelt thanks for generous financial assistance to Jonathon Lloyd-Owen, Margot Higgins, Bert and Leslie Washington and John and Claire Douglas for their very kind donations and finally a big thank you to all the people who have purchased products.

Some of you will be aware that before I came to Australia, Kopila and I laboured long and hard on a funding proposal to the Australian Embassy for one of their Direct Aid Project packages.  Our proposal outlined the training program and it was designed in close consultation with the ladies.

We dropped the proposal off to the Embassy on our way here and hope to hear the outcome in the next couple of months.  We do know that the grants are very competitive but we will let you know if we hear good news!  Whatever happens, some of the money made in Australia can go towards funding this program which we, and the ladies of Sammunat, are passionate about.

Send positive vibes about Mal and me fitting many, many kgs of clay and equipment into our suitcases.  And staying married after we’ve done it.

More soon, Wendy